International Relations

SINGAPORE -- Japanese living here are quickly made aware that their home country and Southeast Asia do not always react to global news or events the same way. Issues that grab headlines in Japan are often ignored here. The ASEAN Economic Communit...

MANILA -- The Philippines and Vietnam are beefing up their military presence in the South China Sea amid fresh concerns over China's island-building on disputed territory there. Easing tensions in the region is likely to be a major item on the ag...

MOSCOW -- Russia is ramping up infrastructure and military development on the Kuril Islands amid increasing frustration with sanctions by Japan, which claims part of the islands. A development plan put together July 23 put infrastructure construc...

KUALA LUMPUR/PARIS (Reuters) -- Malaysia said on Sunday that airplane debris that washed up on the Indian Ocean island of Reunion has been identified as being from a Boeing 777, the same model as a Malaysian Airlines plane which vanished last year. ...

TOKYO -- As Japan and China prepare to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II -- albeit in decidedly different ways -- signs of a thaw between the two countries are starting to emerge. Beijing's recent friendliness toward Japan, how...

LAHAINA, Hawaii -- Japan, the U.S. and other Pacific Rim nations negotiating a trade and investment pact have managed to propose holding another ministerial meeting in late August in a desperate attempt to keep a deal from collapsing. But there appar...

LAHAINA, Hawaii (Kyodo) -- The following is the full text of a joint statement released Friday by ministers from the 12 countries negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade initiative after their four-day talks in Hawaii. We, the trade ...

LAHAINA, Hawaii -- Trade ministers representing the Trans-Pacific Partnership failed to reach an agreement on Friday despite days of intense negotiations and set no timetable for the next round, highlighting the difficulty in achieving the ambitio...

BEIJING -- Last fall, at the Unit 731 Museum in the northeastern Chinese city of Harbin, a young man approached me and asked, "Are you Japanese?" He said he was a 19-year-old university student and had come to the museum by himself. He told me he had...

LAHAINA, Hawaii (Kyodo) -- Negotiations for a Pacific Rim trade agreement entered the final day Friday on the Hawaiian island of Maui, with trade ministers rushing to secure a deal to create the most ambitious free trade zone in a generation. The...

LAHAINA, Hawaii -- Rifts over protections for drug development data and dairy market access remained as the U.S., Japan and 10 other nations engaged in what are seen as pivotal late-stage negotiations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement....

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) -- Beijing was awarded the 2022 winter Olympics on Friday, beating Kazakhstan's Almaty in an International Olympic Committee vote to become the first city to have won both summer and winter editions of the world's biggest multi...

TOKYO -- U.S. intelligence has been spying on key figures in Japan's government and corporate sector for years, according to documents released by WikiLeaks on Friday. The secrets-busting website revealed 35 classified targets the U.S. National S...

LAHAINA, Hawaii -- Malaysia and Vietnam, the Trans-Pacific Partnership's two emerging economies, have offered compromises regarding service sector liberalization but remain steadfast in other "sensitive" areas. With hours to go before ministerial...

LAHAINA, Hawaii -- The coming conclusion of the Trans-Pacific Partnership is expected to benefit both corporations and consumers of the trade bloc in unprecedented fashion, accelerating the movement of people and goods across national borders. A ...

HONG KONG -- A Taiwanese student has killed himself days after he was released home on bail for breaking into the ministry of education to protest local authorities' plans to implement a new "China-centric" curriculum in high schools and vocational s...

PHNOM PENH -- After years of calm neighborly relations, tensions are again rising on Cambodia's eastern border with Vietnam. In May, the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party launched a campaign to address alleged Vietnamese encroachments alo...